


Broken Past

by silver_galaxy



Category: Kate & Leopold (2001)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2012-09-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 10:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_galaxy/pseuds/silver_galaxy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Kate follows Leopold through time, Charlie discovers that her future didn't turn out as expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Past

“Hey Stu?” Charlie called from the sofa, precariously balancing Kate’s laptop on his knees.

“Yeah?”

“What was Leo’s surname?”

“Uh...Mountbatten.” Stuart replied distractedly, engrossed in the formulas scattered across the desk.

“Leopold Alexis Elijah Walker Thomas Gareth Mountbatten?” Worry was starting to creep into his voice.

“Yeah, that’s him.” Stuart replied, shuffling through the papers on the desk.

“I think you need to come and have a look at this.” Charlie said placing the laptop on the coffee table.

“What is it?” Stuart said irritably.

“Stuart, please. You really need to have a look at this.” Charlie pleaded.

“Alright,” he grumbled, retrieving his crutch to hobble over to the sofa. “What?”

“Read this.” Charlie demanded, pointing at the screen.

“Leopold Alexis Elijah Walker Thomas Gareth Mountbatten, Duke of Albany, married Miss Katherine Tree, of the Trees of Schenectady, on November 16th 1876. Oh my god.” Stuart groaned, rubbing at his face.

“Exactly. What happened to Kate? Stuart, we sent her back so she could be with Leo. What happened?” Charlie started to panic.

“Wait, let me think, let me think. Kate...Katherine, maybe this is her. Is there a picture? Maybe she had to change her name?” Stuart said, desperately trying to find an explanation.

“Change her name? What’s wrong with McKay?” he exclaimed.

“I don’t know, maybe...something. It doesn’t matter why. Is there a picture?” Stuart demanded.

Charlie scrolled down the rest of the internet page, but it was filled with text. Pulling the computer back onto his lap he started searching for ‘Katherine Mountbatten, Duchess of Albany’. The seconds dragged on as the search results slowly came up. Less than half the image had appeared before Charlie and Stuart realised that it wasn’t Kate.

“It isn’t her.” Stuart murmured. “I was so sure they both had to go back, to be together. But nothing’s changed, so maybe she was meant to go back but she wasn’t meant to marry Leopold. But then if things had changed it was all in the past and we would never know.”

“No wait, there must have been lots of Duchesses of Albany, maybe there was another one called Katherine,” Charlie tried to argue, ignoring Stuart’s mumblings and scrolling further down the page, “We need a picture with Leo in it.”

“Like that one?” Stuart said, pointing to the screen at a picture of Leopold. Sitting beside him was a plain young woman holding an infant. It was clearly the same woman from the first picture. 

“I don’t understand. What happened?” Charlie asked.

“Anything could have happened. Maybe she didn’t get there in time, maybe she ended up in a different time. Maybe it just didn’t work out.” Stuart guessed.

“Didn’t work out?” Charlie repeated, “My sister travelled through time to be with this guy, of course it wasn’t going to not work out. Maybe your equations were wrong, maybe you sent her to the wrong time,” he accused Stuart. 

“No, no, no.” Stuart said emphatically, “All the formulas were correct, I’ve been over them a hundred times. Something else must have happened.”

“Like what?” Charlie shouted, startling Bart in the next room.

“I don’t know.”

“Well then how do we find her? Should I just search for Kate McKay?” Charlie asked, typing his sister’s name in the computer. “All these results are for her life in the 21st century, and dozens of other Kate McKays.”

“Charlie you won’t find her,” Stuart said practically, “The only reason there’s info on Leopold is because he was a Duke. We might never find anything on Kate, unless she got married and we could find it in city records or we could find her death certificate. I mean we can try, but I wouldn’t hold out much hope. She may not have even stayed in New York, she could have gone to California looking for work, anything could have happened.”

“So that’s it? She’s just gone.” Charlie said disbelieving.

“Yeah, she’s gone.”


End file.
